1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of an apparatus to facilitate the distribution of beverages, and particularly beverages with a limited shelf life or rapid sales turnover subject to frequent restocking, such as soft drinks. More particularly, the present invention relates to the use of an improved shipping tray, which when utilized in its preferred embodiment, provides a nestable, lightweight shipping pallet of a moldable material.
2. Description of Related Art
One current method of beverage distribution essentially considers the beverage truck driver a salesman. The driver""s truck is loaded with a selection of beverages, and the driver calls on accounts on a route. At each account, the driver determines what beverages are required or desired by the account, then the driver locates the beverages in his truck, unloads the beverages and delivers them to the account. This process would be relatively easy if only a single beverage were involved. For instance, if the driver only distributed a single brand of cola, his truck would be completely loaded with that one beverage, and it could be easily unloaded at each account, and accounts could be serviced until the truck was completely empty.
However, today beverage brands are proliferating. In addition, a single brand of beverage may come in a variety of package styles and sizes, such as cans, glass bottles, and a range of plastic containers. When a beverage truck is loaded, as many as 350 different stock keeping units (SKU""s) or brand/container combinations may be loaded. In order to facilitate access to so many different SKU""s, the most common beverage route truck is a side load truck, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,569 or variations thereof, with about 12 to 20 separate compartments. In this fashion, usually no more than about ten different SKU""s would have to be placed in a single compartment, although in some instances over 30 SKU""s may be present. After determining an account""s needed beverages, the driver goes to each separate compartment required to access those beverages. In some cases it will be necessary for the driver to unload a portion of a compartment to access the needed SKU. Furthermore, when a single SKU is exhausted from the truck""s supply, the driver may no longer be able to properly service the remaining accounts on the route, even though the truck continues to have an adequate supply of other beverages. This leads to trucks returning to the distribution center partially loaded, and places a valuable premium upon correctly guessing the needs of the accounts on each route. Even when side load trucks are loaded to exact route requirements from account order information, the process of having the driver select SKU""s from side load truck compartments is time consuming and back breaking work.
Accordingly, as part of a new beverage delivery system to improve delivery service it is desirable to utilize an improved shipping tray. Utilizing the improved shipping tray, a truck may be loaded to specifically meet the orders of each account on a route and to minimize the time needed to select and unload the beverages ordered by each individual account. Individual trays may be loaded with packages, or individual, beverage containers of various sizes and quantities including, for example cases, 6-packs or 2-liter bottles. The packaged units may be stacked in bays in truck trailers or in special carts loaded on a truck and then driven to a delivery point. Packaged units may be loaded in columns onto shipping trays in the desired types and quantity to satisfy an order by a particular retail location. Once at the retail location, the driver can unload the stacked shipping trays with a compatible hand truck or other manual carrier. When unloaded at the retail location, the shipping tray may be used as the base for floor displays of the beverage products. This prevents damage to the products from the cleaning and floor waxing operations in the retail location.
The shipping tray provides an accessible area, below the stacked units, to receive the lifting portion, or tongue, of a hand truck. Therefore, the hand truck can readily be positioned under the shipping tray with the stacked packaged units. The packaged units may then be simply rocked into position onto the hand truck, transported to the display location and unloaded in a similar fashion. This system avoids, or reduces, manual lifting and re-stacking by the driver. Since the shipping tray is designed to accommodate case sized layers of SKU""S, the SKU""s can be pre-arranged in a column-stack on the shipping tray.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide improved shipping trays to facilitate both the loading and unloading of trucks with beverages sorted by account order.
Another object of the invention is to provide a durable, lightweight shipping tray for handling and transporting packages or packaged units such as beverage containers.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a low profile, nestable shipping tray which occupies relatively little space both when in a loaded stacked relation and when in an empty nested relation.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight, reusable shipping tray that can be efficiently and economically manufactured.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight shipping tray of unitary construction.
A further additional object of the present invention of the present invention is to provide an integrally molded plastic shipping tray that has sufficient structural integrity to withstand repeated and rough handling.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight shipping tray with a reinforced central support member formed from a moldable material.
Another object of the present invention provides an injection molded, durable shipping tray, preferably, a one-piece injection molded, durable shipping tray.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a recyclable, lightweight shipping tray.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a novel pallet for use with a matching hand truck to facilitate the loading and unloading of beverage trucks with beverages sorted by account order.
The present invention recognizes and addresses these foregoing and other objects. The durable shipping tray of the present invention provides a convenient means for handling packaged units, in particular, packages of beverage containers. The lightweight shipping tray, or mini-pallet, can support stacked packages of beverage containers at an elevation above the floor. The primary surface or deck of the mini-pallet is substantially open, generally planar and is supported at this elevation by at least two side legs positioned proximate with the sides of the deck and a leg positioned about the center of the deck. The legs are arranged so that a portion of a carrier, such as a hand-truck, can readily be positioned sufficiently with a portion of the carrier underneath the deck to provide stable support during lifting and transporting operations. The center leg is shaped and sized to compatibly fit within a designated opening in the lifting portion of the carrier.
In the preferred embodiment, the center leg presents a continuous surface such that the carrier can be laterally moved unhindered about the leg while being positioned. Furthermore, the center legs is configured to interact with the carrier to guide and maintain the mini-pallet in a proper position on the carrier. Also in the preferred embodiment, the deck has a lattice-like configuration with a pattern of open spaces which not only allows liquids to drain through, but also requires less material and is lighter than a solid deck.
The preferred embodiment has at least two side legs configured in the shape of rails extending a substantial width of the deck to not only provide a broad support area for the deck, but also a large surface area along the underside of the legs to enhance the wearability of the legs. A further feature of the preferred embodiment is nesting pockets for receiving the legs of an identical tray stacked thereon such that mini-pallets can be nested together.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description or accompanying drawings, or may be learned through the practice of the invention.
The accompanying drawings which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate several embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.